Luz opens her eyes and she sits up with an audible grunt, flexing her right arm as it begins to tingle back to life, feeling like a thousand bees thrumming against her nerves. Her eyes find the alarm clock and she lets out a heavy, tired sigh when sees that she has twenty minutes left until it goes off to signal that it is time for school.
Morning light filters through her purple-ish curtains, casting a glow across her small, yet very decorated bedroom. The window had been left slightly ajar to allow cool air to flow freely through the room, she can hear birds chirping outside as the morning slowly breaks.
The sound of breathing grabs her attention and she leans over the edge of her bed, letting out a chuckle of amusement and reaching for her phone beneath her pillow. Amity slept on the floor, curled up in a fetal position with a loose blanket tucked around her front and splaying across the carpet. The pillow was long forgotten behind her.
Clicking for a picture, Luz shuts her phone off and leans down to tap the girl's shoulder. Amity doesn't budge, she's still sound asleep. As much as she wished not to disturb her, she had to if she didn't want to be late for school. Amity was a Straight A's student after all.
"Ames." She whispers, shaking the brunette's shoulder and causing her to jolt awake, immediately going into defense mode. Amity was about to attack before she looked up through bleary golden eyes, seemingly recognizing Luz and visibly relaxing. "Sorry." Luz apologizes with a shy smile, "It's 6:01, we need to get ready for school."
Amity hums and sits up, stretching before pulling herself to stand up, using the bed as leverage. She stumbles briefly, holding her arms out to regain her balance. Amity finally turns back to Luz, now a little more awake. "You need to prepare for school," she murmurs tiredly, "we don't return until the 13th."
Luz scoffs incredulity. "Lucky!"
"Not really." Amity grabs her bag from next to Luz's beanbag and swings it over her shoulder tiredly. "I'm going to get a shower to wake myself up a little more, then I'll head home."
Wait.
The tanned girl scrambles off the bed and scampers in front of the door, blocking Amity's exit as adrenaline shoots through her veins like a bullet.
"My mother may be down there," she informs her quietly as though the mentioned woman was listening, Amity raises a brow curiously. "I can't let her know that I had anyone over without her permission! She'll kill me!"
Amity sighs and glances towards the window. "Want me to leave through there?" She asks genuinely.
Luz blinks several times, processing the request. "What?" She shakes her head, "No! She'll definitely see you if she's in the lounge!" She gestures for Amity to follow and quietly creaks the door open, "Come on, I'll try to sneak you out."
"Try to sneak who out?"
Her blood turns cold as dread settles inside and Luz stiffly turns around to see her mother standing in the hallway, carrying a laundry basket with an annoyed expression on her face.
"Mama!" She greets nervously, straightening her posture and folding her hands behind her back with an all-too-innocent smile on her face. Luz laughs, "I wasn't trying to sneak naybody-" She pauses, processing what she'd just said. "Anybody! I wasn't trying to sneak anybody out!"
Her mother raises a brow in disbelief and Luz sees Amity retreating to the window out of the corner of her eye. "What do you take me for? A fool?" She sets the clothes basket down, a tremor of fear races up the teenager's spine and she shrinks under the woman's hard glare. "Move."
Luz swallows hard and reluctantly steps out of her way, allowing her to enter the room.
Amity stops just at the window and her eyes meet with Camila's, she carefully steps down from the windowsill. She moves as though one wrong step will cost her her life. "Hello," she greets apprehensively, Amity raises her hands and glances at Luz as if asking for help. "We didn't do anything, I promise. It was just a sleep-"
Camila turns back to Luz, who immediately cowers away. "You brought a girl over without discussing it with me first? ¡Lo sabes mejor!" The tone of her voice was like venom. "¿Recuerdas lo que pasó con tu hermana?"
Well, hopefully she'll have a nice funeral.
"I-I remember." Luz whispers meekly, taking the quiet sigh her mother released as her cue to move. She approaches Amity, who is watching them warily. "Mama." The woman looks at them and Luz offers a tiny smile an attempt to lighten the situation, "Este es mi novia… Amity."
"Tu novia?" Camila repeats in disbelief, but Luz just nods in response and the woman's face becomes unreadable as she looks at Amity. The brunette meets her eyes and her own expression becomes hardened, almost as if she's preparing for the worst. It was so… practiced.
Finally, Camila comes forward, looking at Luz. "Although I do not like being lied to about having a stranger in my home, I will allow it to slide this one time." Luz sighs in relief and a weight lifts up off of her shoulders, her mother looks at Amity. "You may call me Camila, I figured my daughter was seeing somebody, but I didn't suspect that it would be you."
"What do you mean?" Luz asks carefully.
Camila gives her a weird look. "I work in a hospital and most of my patients are children. You think I do not know Amity Blight?"
Amity interrupts, her golden eyes wide. "You work at the hospital? Clear Hope?"
Camila smiles broadly, "Si! Have for many years before I had children of my own!" She makes a small gesture towards Amity, politely speaking to her now that the tension in the room has faded. "You read to the children, no?"
Wait, what?
The brunette giggles sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as heat rises to her pale cheeks. "Um, yeah, I do…" Well if that isn't the most adorable thing in the world, she doesn't know what is. "I was actually hoping that nobody would recognize me."
"You created yourself a name there amongst them, they look forward to it." Camila informs her and Amity grins happily, the woman's gaze softens and she lets out a sigh, turning back to Luz. "Next time she comes over, give me a call first. Amity, stay as long as you'd like." She suddenly becomes serious and a thick tension fills the air around her. "But if I learn that you girls are doing anything you shouldn't be doing in my home-"
Luz cuts her off. "No worries! We won't! I promise!" She shoos her mother towards the door with Amity following close behind her, "Amity has to go home now anyway."
"I have to start moving in, actually." Amity corrects quietly, placing her hand on Luz's shoulder. "I got the apartment I told you that I applied for," she looks at Camila, "my parents refuse to help me and my siblings are who knows where… So, I was going to ask Luz, but perhaps the two of you could help me? After school, of course."
The tan girl immediately looks at her mother for her response, eagerly waiting to hear a positive answer.
"Very well," Camila sighs in defeat.
Amity's apartment was the equivalent of a condo, which makes considering that it was built in an expensive apartment complex.
Just as you walk in, there are two large glass windows across from the door with a pristine white floor and a gentle, silverish brown texture across the walls, giving it a marbled appearance. To the right was a spacious lounge, a circular room that breaks off into a hallway leading to the black and white kitchen. At their left were two bedrooms, the bathroom, and the laundry room.
The bedrooms were both white with a polished wooden floor, the master bedroom has a balcony stretching out to overlook the rest of the city, while offering a nice view of the mountains in the distance.
The best part? It wasn't too far from Luz's home, it's only about a twenty minute walk!
"So!" Luz grins as she bounces up to Amity's side, briefly startling the star. Amity shakes her head, returning herself to reality. "What's first, Chief?" She asks, making a gesture to the unopened boxes that they'd just finished bringing in. Her mother was organizing them in the corner, agitated by the disorder of the way they'd brought them in.
"Decorations," Amity smirks, "we can get the furniture later. I have some ideas I want to do before I forget." She says, strolling over to cut open a box on top of the stack Camila was building.
Camila speaks up, "I would wait to do the decorations later. That way you can work around the furniture."
Amity smiles politely, "No need, you two can head on home. Thank you for your help!" She answers as she removes a folded banner from the box, "I'm decorating my studio first, the only furniture in there will be my desk."
The woman looks over at Luz as Amity walks away to approach the guest bedroom, the room she'd claimed as her shooting studio for her blog. "Studio?" Her mother asks in bewilderment. "What does she mean?"
Ah, so she didn't know.
"Amity is an internet star," Luz explains, picking up the box to carry it to Amity.
Camila's eyes widened in astonishment.
"She runs her own blog, has nearly a million followers on Instagram, and she'll be collabing with a famous Youtuber here soon." She'd been informed of this yesterday, while they'd been up all night discussing whatever came to mind. "She's planning on starting her own channel." Luz laughs heartily. "How do you think she could afford this apartment?"
"She's famous?" Camila repeats.
Luz nods, "Yeah. Her name is becoming big, too! I can't wait to see where it takes her." She nudges the door open with her foot. "Anyway, I'll stay here and help Amity for a few. Okay?"
"Are you sure?" Camila sounds worried.
"I'll call you when I start heading home," Luz promises, "I won't be long." She tells her, turning to enter the studio just as Amity sets her phone down. The brunette glances up as she walks into the room."Where do you want everything?" Luz asks as she sets the box down next to the girl, who raises a brow in confusion.
"I said you could-"
Luz cuts her off, "You did, but I wanna help." She informs her genuinely, "If you really want me to leave, I will."
Amity sighs, "No, it's alright. " She makes a small gesture around the room, "I wanted to post my new studio reveal on my blog, but," the brunette chuckles happily, "I suppose I could allow my girlfriend to assist behind the scenes."
"Well!" Luz claps her hands together, "Let's get to work!"
Three hours later, the studio was mostly complete. The only thing missing was Amity's desk, which she would set up alone with her own programming after it arrived.
Across from where the desk would be, there was a Girl In Red poster on the center of the wall, surrounded with little trinkets that Amity has received in her recently opened fanmail, such as an ornament that one of her dedicated followers had made for her out of stained glass; Amity in chibi form with the lesbian flag flying behind her.
Apparently it'd almost made her breakdown into tears after seeing how much positivity came out of revealing everything. Amity treasured the item like it was a priceless family heirloom.
"There's one thing left to open." Luz announces, breaking out her stupor and drawing Amity's attention to her. She grabs a bag from the door and her girlfriend visibly tenses, sighing as she takes it from her and hesitantly opens it. The gift was from her siblings, dropped off while they were decorating. Amity had been avoiding it.
"It's probably some sort of prank." She mutters, tossing the bag inside to unwrap something that had obviously been delicately handled. Amity pauses when she rips the first layer of wrapper off and her expression becomes one of grief and realization mixed into one. "Oh my God…"
Shaky fingers peel the rest of the paper off and she stretches the item out to reveal a handmade lesbian banner with the words 'let's get one thing straight, I'm not' printed on the front of it.
"I like it!" Luz grins, "See? They do care!" Her smile fades when Amity doesn't reciprocate, instead staring at the banner as though she'd seen a ghost. "Amity…?"
"They shouldn't have touched it." Amity's voice drips venom, "they shouldn't have touched anything of hers…" She shakes her head, rubbing her forehead with two fingers while grasping the loose banner in her spare hand. Amity seems to relax. "Can you grab me the chair, please?"
Luz nods and rushes over to grab the chair, taking it back to her and setting it to where Amity points. "Who is 'her'?"
Amity glances at her and steps onto the chair, using thumbtacks to hang the item up above her poster where it would be front and center. "It's nothing." She doesn't sound so sure. "It's just that they were thoughtless. Again."
Luz shrugs, "I don't know," she motions to the banner, "seems pretty thoughtful to me."
"I suppose they tried…" Amity finally admits defeat, stepping down and setting the chair out of the way. Seemingly deciding to brush the subject aside she grabs her phone from an empty box and unlocks it. Her eyes widen, she looks up at Luz. "Are you going to head home?"
She probably should, it's getting late and she still has homework to do. But, she doesn't want to leave Amity in the mood she is in. "Maybe."
"Alright, well," Amity turns back to her, displaying her phone screen for Luz to see. "Apparently with the story I just posted, I caught you entering the room. I didn't see it, but my viewers did." She zooms in at the door to reveal the edge of the box and Luz's shoe stepping around the corner. "They're asking if the person in the background is my girlfriend."
"Are you going to tell them?"
The other girl hums, "I was thinking… Why don't we continue teasing them for a while?" Luz raises a brow, asking a silent question that Amity understands. "I mean, post little things every now and then, but never enough for them to figure out who you are."
Luz's eyes light up and she practically bounces over to her girlfriend's side, scrolling through the comments. "Oooo! Mystery!" She says in awe. "Yeah! Totally! I'm in!"
"Excellent." Amity laughs, stepping back towards the pile of blankets she'd arranged in the corner. She grabs Luz's arm and pulls her down, resituating them so that she could curl comfortably against her and still look at her phone. "In that case, I won't confirm, nor deny anything."
Luz lifts one hand and places it on Amity's forehead, brushing her brown bangs down into her eyes and holding them there, giggling as Amity attempts to claw her hand off of her face.
"You have immobilized my legs, I am only getting my revenge." Her only response was Amity sticking her tongue out at her, she just scoffs in amusement and Amity swats at her with her spare hand. Luz moves her hand down to thread her fingers through the other girl's hair.
"The identity thing." She circles back around to their previous topic, "Brutal. I love it." Luz pauses abruptly and she reaches into her jacket to grab her phone. "I should probably tell my Mom we're keeping it a secret! Otherwise she'll tell everybody she knows."
Meaning, the entire hospital...